Luke Painter: Revivalesque

Luke Painter: Revivalesque

July 29 – September 5, 2010

Opening Reception – Thursday July 29, at 7:30 pm

Minarovich Gallery – Elora Centre for the Arts

Curated by Phil Irish

Luke Painter is coming to the Minarovich Gallery at The Elora Centre for the Arts for a solo exhibition of large scale drawings of landscapes and architecture.
It is an opulent ornamental collection with stories implied in a way that is uniquely compelling. The exhibition also includes a selection of animated works.
The viewer is drawn into structures that are both visually and intellectually engaging.

The bold, graphic strength of the drawings echoes the black and white traditions of printmaking (like engraving and woodcut). These works, however, are made with a directness that reveals a
startling surety of hand: each bold mark of India Ink finds its right place. The obsessive pleasure in making these works is evident as wit, invention, and visual play mark each unfolding square
inch of paper. The drawings riff on visual languages as diverse as Victorian ornament, Sci-Fi illustration, and reality TV. The collision of references, visually unified in Painter’s syncretic imagination, results in a significant sense of displacement and darkly beautiful strangeness.

Natural and built structures are consistently interconnected throughout this work. Trees become buildings, or a swath of clear cut marks out a building’s source; yet the buildings are uncannily tree like, organic, having a living character of their own. Structures are caught in the process of coming together and falling apart.

Luke Painter’s animation works examines the architectural transformation of cities over time. Based on real neighbourhoods of Montreal and Toronto, the works integrate historic and lost elements into the modern cityscape. Whimsical mechanical rhythms evoke processes of urban development and decay, amplifying these processes to a scale of the absurd. The extremes of both failed urban planning and utopic urban optimism fall before Luke’s imaginative satire.

The exhibition Revival-esque investigates how our culture returns to past eras for re-invigoration and new possibilities. Painter addresses our ability – in fashion, architecture, film, and even intellectual movements – to ransack bygone eras for contemporary solutions. In Painter’s process of cultural remix, the familiar becomes puzzlingly foreign; we are invited to look and imagine all over again.

The Elora Centre for the Arts encourages the public to come and enjoy the art of Luke Painter. Meet the artist at a wine and cheese reception on July 29th at 7:30PM.
The public will have an opportunity to discuss Painter’s work with the artist himself.